The PIE Institute grew out of educational research led by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. With support from the National Science Foundation, the Lifelong Kindergarten group developed the Cricket, a small programmable device. In 2000 educators from MIT and several museums formed the PIE Network and began to experiment with science and art activities using the Cricket and other new digital technologies.

The PIE Institute continues the work of the PIE Network by continuing to create playful and inventive educational activities using science, art, and technology, and by sharing PIE ideas with a larger audience of educators in museums and other kinds of informal learning environments. This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ESI-0452567.